Austria and Luxembourg have blocked an EU deal to increase tax transparency.
Their finance ministers dug in their heels at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday (14 May) despite pressure from major EU states.
Speaking to press after the event, EU taxation commissioner Algirdas Semeta described their intransigence as a "great disappointment."
He called on the EU to "get its house in order" on tax evasion and urged EU leaders to "rectify the situation" at a summit next week.
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Benjamin Fox is a seasoned reporter and editor, previously working for fellow Brussels publication Euractiv. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He heads up the AU-EU section at EUobserver, based in Nairobi, Kenya.